did my first autox!!

[Billy Dagwood]

Well, yesterday I did my first autox at the "Hot Cross Barnes" event out in Ayer, MA.

 

IT IS FUN!!

 

I had five runs, and I'm generally pleased with the results. EDIT: official times are up

 

run #1: 92.000 seconds+DNF. all alone. I put the car where I wanted it to be, but I was waaaaay too slow. AND I MUST HAVE MISSED A GATE!

 

run #2: 88.320 seconds. I drove with an instructor riding shotgun and went a lot faster, but I spun out and lost some time. I managed to keep her on the course, though, so no DNF call and actually a better time than the first run!

 

run #3: 78.144 seconds. all alone. I tried to concentrate on the instructor's tips, and it came out MUCH better.

 

run #4: 95.279 seconds. alone. This run was my first in the second round of heats, and I was "cold." I had gone previously on a 60-second run with an instructor in his modded trans am with slicks and tried to apply what he said, but it was a bit too much for my LGT (or, more precisely, my RE92s). I spun out twice but still managed to finish.

 

run #5: 75.354 seconds. alone. My best run of the day. Having had such an abysmal 4th run, I tried to figure out how much the car (and track) would take before eating me, and how sideways I could get before not being able to recover.

 

 

Mid-70s was my goal for the day, and that's right where I ended. A drop from 92 - 75 seconds is just fine with me.

 

All in all I think it was a great experience. I definitely felt at the end of the day that I knew my car better than at the beginning. I can't recommend these events enough, even if you only do it once. Me though .. I'll be back.

[Th3Franz]

Yeah they are fun.

I'm surprised you spun your car that much.. I get my car sideways at autocross but I think I have only spun it once and that was in the rain. But, you'll learn a lot as you do more events.. I know I am still learning a lot.

[Billy Dagwood]

*shrug* I guess I pushed the RE92s farther than they wanted to go. Once I held back on them a little bit, it went much better (see 4th run to 5th run).

[rallispec]

wow man, great to see that improvement in just a few runs. How did you do compared to the fastest time of the day?

[whitetiger]

Once you get rid of the re92's you will be able to go much faster and corner alot better. When i did my first 2 autox's on the stock tires. i had miles of understeer. now with my yokohama advans, I won in ESP class.

[RochNY91TSI]

Yep, it's fun

[Garandman]

What kind of speeds did you hit? Was it a pretty open course, or more twisty?

 

Back when MA had Blue Laws there were tons of autox events in Mall parking lots. Orange airport was used for some higher speed events.

 

What kind of tire pressures did you run? Did you check with other Subie drivers to see if you were in the ballpark?

[Xenonk]

welcome to the world of cone-killing

[Billy Dagwood]

Actually, I'm proud to say I didn't hit any cones all day!

 

My pressures I think were a little too low. I ran 42 psi up front and 40 in back. I did get my sidewalls a little chewed up, but nothing major.

 

The course was actually a good balance between twisties and straightaways. There were 3 slaloms and quite a few gates. One thing was that they had these hard turns way at the edges of the runway (back and forth, back and forth) that were LINED with cones, so if you hit one, you hit 5. I doubt if I ever got over 40 or MAYBE 50. I certainly never got above second gear.

 

As far as comparing my time to the best of the day .. well .. the best was this little yellow Dragon F1 in A-modified that ran a raw score of 51.784.

[Billy Dagwood]

wow man, great to see that improvement in just a few runs.

 

THANKS!

[Th3Franz]

Once you get rid of the re92's you will be able to go much faster and corner alot better. When i did my first 2 autox's on the stock tires. i had miles of understeer. now with my yokohama advans, I won in ESP class.

 

o rly?

You must be a good driver because ESP allows race tires. What size are the Advans you are running?

[Tommyh]

Actually, I'm proud to say I didn't hit any cones all day!

 

If you're not hitting cones, you're not trying hard enough.

 

My pressures I think were a little too low. I ran 42 psi up front and 40 in back. I did get my sidewalls a little chewed up, but nothing major.

 

That's actually higher than I run mine at. I'll run mine at 38psi front and 37 psi rear. Your sidewalls, to a point, should be considered a part of the tread of the tire, so monitor it, but don't worry about it. Best things to do for your cars handling is to ditch the RE92s and get a more performance oriented alignment; you have no idea how big of a difference that will make.

 

I certainly never got above second gear.

 

And you most likely will not. There are some clubs that may have a straight where you can shift into 3rd, but it may actually be faster to let the car bounce off the rev limiter. There is only one club that I know of that has a dedicatedly 3rd gear course, and they're down at The Meadowlands in NJ.

 

 

So, when are you going out again? Connecticut Autocross & Rally Team is a pretty good club that I go and play with.

[Garandman]

Are plain jane cars still welcome? I looked at the entry list and it seems like everything is pretty purposeful.

 

I'd like to try the OBW at the limit and that's a good way to do it. Have to buy a new helmet, though, my Snell spec is too old.....

 

The first NER autocross I ever went to was at Seabrook, NH dog track. there was a Peugot diesel station wagon; a Rabbit diesel; and some very ratty Civics and Accords when they were anything but fast. The "diesel class" was hotly contested.....

[Billy Dagwood]

Are plain jane cars still welcome? I looked at the entry list and it seems like everything is pretty purposeful.

 

I'd like to try the OBW at the limit and that's a good way to do it. Have to buy a new helmet, though, my Snell spec is too old.....

 

The first NER autocross I ever went to was at Seabrook, NH dog track. there was a Peugot diesel station wagon; a Rabbit diesel; and some very ratty Civics and Accords when they were anything but fast. The "diesel class" was hotly contested.....

 

There were definitely a few cars that were plain jane. Don't forget about the dodge caravan and the old limo. For what it's worth, even a lot of the "purposeful" vehicles were daily drivers, especially among the subarus.

[Billy Dagwood]

So, when are you going out again? Connecticut Autocross & Rally Team is a pretty good club that I go and play with.[/color]

 

I was checking that club out -- I think I'd like to do a wintercross with them.

[Xenonk]

Are plain jane cars still welcome? I looked at the entry list and it seems like everything is pretty purposeful.

 

yup, hence Stock class

[Garandman]

yup, hence Stock class

What stock class would an Outback 3.0R wagon be? They list most non-turbos as G or H stock, but do not list Outbacks or 3.0's at all.

http://www.scca.com/_Filelibrary/File/stockcategoryclassificationsbymake.pdf

[Xenonk]

run in HS stock until someone say something that's what I did when I got the GT and autoxed in way before SEC/SCCA knew about this car 2 years ago.. it was very easy for them to see that I crushed HStock and they werent pleased with my thoughts of what this car should be classed under

[Beanboy]

Ahaha, when I did my first autocross with my old neon, they stuck me in HS... Destroyed everybody, hehe.

[Xenonk]

it's funnier when you get something like super fast like the Elise before anyone knew what it was, but you put it in GStock because everyone thought it was a pretty simple car and has resemblance of a Celica GT My excuse would have been:

 

"it's got the Toyota motor in it and I run skinny tires just like the Celica "

 

 

btw, the joke here if anyone doesnt know is that the Lotus Elise is in Super Stock, which competes against such cars like 911s, Z06s and it's beyond the AStock STi and S2000s and E46 M3s, hahahaha